Melissa Shang

Disability Advocate. Age 15.

Melissa Shang is an 15-year-old who goes to Newton South High School. Born with a form of muscular dystrophy called Charcot-Marie-Tooth, Melissa is a disability advocate and an American Girl fan. With the help of her sister Eva, Melissa launched a viral petition of a disabled American Girl doll that was featured in Cosmopolitan, USA Today, CBS, HLN, IB Times, and other major news outlets and raised massive public attention to disability representation in children’s toys. Currently, Melissa has published her first book, Mia Lee is Wheeling Through Middle School.

Melissa loves to sing, read, and hopes to one day be a therapist. Her favorite song is Shake it Off by Taylor Swift.

Petition

An American Girl doll with a disability?

To Jean McKenzie, President of American Girl

In January 2014, I started a petition for American Girl to release a Girl of the Year with a Disability.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve had Charcot-Marie-Tooth, a form of muscular dystrophy. When I was seven, like most of my classmates, I fell in love with American Girl dolls—historical and modern girls with stories about overcoming obstacles. I’ve read all of the books, seen all of the movies, and even visited the American Girl Place in New York City. For the past three years, I’ve asked for an American Girl doll for Christmas.

Of all the American Girl dolls, my favorites are the Girl of the Years. Every year, American Girl introduces a brand-new character with a story about finding success in the face of challenges today. Girls of the Year come from all different places, from Hawaii to New Mexico, and they help girls learn what it’s like to be someone else. Through Saige, I learned what it’s like to be an artist and horseback rider. Through McKenna, I learned what it’s like to be a gymnast. Girls of the Year have helped me understand how it feels to be someone else.

However, none of the American Girl Girls of the Year are like me. None of them have a disability.

Being a disabled girl is hard. Muscular Dystrophy prevents me from activities like running and ice-skating, and all the stuff that other girls take for granted. For once, I don’t want to be invisible or a side character that the main American Girl has to help: I want other girls to know what it’s like to be me, through a disabled American Girl’s story.

Disabled girls might be different from normal kids on the outside. They might sit in a wheelchair like I do, or have some other difficulty that other kids don’t have. However, we are the same as other girls on the inside, with the same thoughts and feelings. American Girls are supposed to represent all the girls that make up American history, past and present. That includes disabled girls.

The petition was a huge success. It was featured in news outlets from CBS to Oprah Magazine to Cosmopolitan to the International Business Times, and received an outpouring of support, as well as over 140,000 signatures.

Book

Mia Lee is Wheeling Through Middle School: The Book

The Kickstarter

Although our petition achieved massive success, American Girl did not promise to tell the story of a girl with disability as the main character. Our stories deserve to be heard.

So, I started a Kickstarter to raise the money to publish the book myself. Girls with disabilities have the same hopes and dreams as other girls, and the difficulties we face every day make our stories that much more inspirational. I don’t want another book where I’m just the side character who teaches the main character a lesson about being kind. For once, I want readers to know what it’s like to be me.

Within 24 hours of starting the Kickstarter, we achieved our goal of raising $2,000. Over the course of month, 173 backers pledged $6,312 to help bring this project to life.

Mia Lee is Wheeling Through Middle School

After a year of work and the help of many, many people, our book is now available on paperback and on Kindle on Amazon here. We were represented during the publishing process by Clelia Gore, from Martin Literary Agency.

Mia Lee is Wheeling Through Middle School is a fun, spunky tale of a 6th grade girl named Mia, who loves making videos and hanging out with her friends. She also happens to be in a wheelchair, like me. The book is targeted towards grades 4-7, and is available on Amazon in Kindle and in paperback here.

The Plot

Hello, sixth grade! Mia Lee is a stop-motion filmmaker with a wheelchair and a lot of sass, trying to survive her new middle school. Which doesn’t seem so easy when she’s running for Video Production Club President against certified Middle School Mean Girl, Angela Vanover.

Things get weird when Angela starts being nice to her - well, when other people are around, at least. But when Mia’s campaign posters for VP Club President mysteriously vanish - no tape, no poster, no nothin’ - the presidential race gets real.

With the help of her brain files, an awesome aide with keys to the whole school, and her friends, Rory, Daniela, and Caroline, Mia finds herself on a mission to prove Angela isn’t just an ordinary middle school mean girl, she’s a thief!

Writing

New York Times and more.

"What she meant is that Mia Lee, my sassy, YouTube-loving heroine, differed too much from the convention of what a disabled kid is supposed to be like. There are very few stories about kids in wheelchairs, and there are even fewer with a disabled person who is cheerful and happy. Disability is always seen as a misfortune, and disabled characters are simply opportunities to demonstrate the kindness of the able-bodied protagonists."